Calgary GM Jay Feaster, with some help, is making the NHL trade deadline as anticlimactic as possible. That's a problem for Canadian TV analysts, who, at this point, figure to spend Wednesday alternating between abject boredom and openly rooting for a Roberto Luongo deal.

If that trade is better than the one that sent captain Jarome Iginla to the Pittsburgh Penguins, it's only marginally so; Calgary gets the pick in 2013 if the Blues make the playoffs. If they don't—and they're currently a point out of position—Calgary gets their fourth-round pick in 2013 and a first-rounder the following year, unconditionally.

So, some advice for Calgary fans: Root—hard—against the Blues for the rest of April, then hope they fall apart in 2014.

The issue, though, is that Bouwmeester makes them better, if not a postseason lock. St. Louis was looking for a top-four defenseman, and Bouwmeester, despite 735 games and counting without a playoff appearance and a $6.6 million cap hit through next season, fits the bill.

Cundari and Berra, according to prospect experts like Hockey Prospectus' Corey Pronman, are fringe NHL players. The same could be said for Kenny Agostino and Ben Hanowski, who, along with a 2013 first-round pick, were the return on Iginla. That means that Feaster has turned the best forward and defenseman yet to hit the market into four borderline prospects and, worst-case scenario, a pair of low first-round picks.

The moves are even tougher to like, given that Douglas Murray (Penguins) and Robyn Regehr (LA Kings) both cost their new teams two second-round picks—Bouwmeester is better, if more expensive, than both of them. (It should be noted that Pittsburgh will only send one second-rounder back to San Jose if Murray walks in unrestricted free agency.)

Next up for Calgary is, potentially, a Miikka Kiprusoff trade. The Flames reportedly gave the Toronto Maple Leafs permission to speak to the pending UFA goaltender. Now, that move is easy to knock on the Maple Leafs' end—James Reimer continues to show that he's more than capable of sustained success as a starter. The caveat, though, is that Feaster hasn't given anyone reason to think that Kiprusoff's price tag would be high.